CS:GO: ESL Reviewing Potential Road to Rio Conflicts of Interest
| Tags: CS2
| Author Caroline Rutledge
ESL will evaluate MIBR and Yeah’s team ownership issue.
ESL will be evaluating a number of conflicts of interest that have been reported by participants of ESL One: Road to Rio, the tournament organizer revealed on Twitter. Road to Rio is the first of four Regional Major Ranking events on the way to the ESL One Rio CS:GO Major.
We are currently seeking clarification on and evaluating the conflicts of interest reported by the participants of #ESLOne Road to Rio.
Decisions on further action will depend on the nature of the additional information that is disclosed.
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) April 23, 2020
Teams were required to submit a declaration of interest in order to participate in Road to Rio. This declaration was to outline any potential conflicts of interest their players, coaches, or managers may be involved in. A Valve representative told HLTV.org that these disclosures were the only requirement for Road to Rio, and the disclosures must subsequently be made public “so that the community can have an opportunity to discuss them.”
Multiple Team Ownership
The main conflict of interest in discussion lies between Brazilian teams MIBR and Yeah. Active and previous members of the former own stake in the latter. Epitacio “TACO” de Melo and MIBR manager Ricardo “dead” Sinigaglia, along with former member Marcelo “coldzera” David and former coach Wilton “zews” Prado, are all listed as part-owners of Yeah on both teams’ interest declarations. Despite this, the individuals named are allegedly not involved with the Yeah organization’s decision making. In addition, an annual fee grants MIBR parent company Immortals Gaming Club the ability to buy out up to two of Yeah’s players in a calendar year for “an agreed-upon price.”
Despite taking previous measures against team ownership conflicts of interest in CS:GO tournaments, Valve has approved both teams for competition. A similar issue arose on the European side of the event. Dignitas member Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund still owns a minority stake in previous organization Ninjas in Pyjamas. Road to Rio tournament organizer ESL will now be evaluating the issues independently. They stated that “Decisions on further action will depend on the nature of the additional information that is disclosed.”
MIBR and Yeah played against each other in their opening Road to Rio match earlier today. MIBR came out on top with a 2-0 scoreline.
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Featured image via BLAST Pro Series.
Caroline is an esports journalist focusing on CS:GO. Starting out as a casual CS:GO fan, her interest quickly turned into a passion as she spent years studying the game. She has put that knowledge to use as a journalist, now writing about professional CS:GO for multiple websites including TheGamer.